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This is cool and I’m really happy about the outcome, but I’m always extremely put off by “children” marches and protests. Its parents and adults putting these t

This is cool and I’m really happy about the outcome, but I’m always extremely put off by “children” marches and protests. Its parents and adults putting these things on and the children just come off as tools. Yuck.

cycomanic 6y ago
I actually just had an argument with my SO about this. She was arguing that it was mostly the parents protesting and I strongly disagreed. If you talk with a even 6 year old, they can realise things being wrong and argue about it very well (and get better at it when they get older to 11-12). In particular they question things that adults often take for granted. Now that requires parents listening and taking the kids serious instead of just telling them to obey. So I believe it's wrong to suggest that it was adults "misusing" their children. The way it was portrayed in the film was that it was the children discussing their situation in class and then being encouraged to try to do something about it (the bit where they talk to the politician). This is how you raise children who think critically and create participation in democratic processes. I would not be surprised that this is the actual way it developed.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  I've left a long comment above to illustrate this further.
jacquesm 6y ago
As one of the kids that participated in the strike (I lived in 'de Pijp' at the time, a pretty densely populated part of Amsterdam South) my mom had nothing to do with this and did not want me to participate. My sister was too young but I was out there at the ripe old age of seven. Every kid knew at least one kid that had been killed in a vehicle accident, traffic and parking were insane, to the point where you had to detour 500 meters in order to just cross the street safely. (And even then, there were routinely people running red lights and not paying attention when turning right on green that people might be crossing, much like it still happens today in modern day Bucharest.) So, though I'm sure that some adults were involved the kids were very much driving this. What gave the initial idea (and which is not very well explained here) is that the strike was the beginning, but what really cemented the idea in place was the car-less sundays a year later because of the oil crisis. This showed everybody what life really could be like, and soon after there was a lot more support for making neighborhoods safer. The great thing about Amsterdam at the time was that the smaller areas were relatively autonomous and could make some pretty big changes, such as making streets one-way (already a lot safer) or to block traffic from going somewhere entirely. The Pijp was particularly bad because population density was so high that the only place where kids could play safely were the parks (mostly: Sarphatipark) but that was quite far away for many of us and you had to cross either one or two very busy streets to get there. And so we played mostly on the streets, which was about as unsafe as you can imagine. If you've ever played the game of 'frogger' you get a good idea of what life in that part of Amsterdam was like at that time. It is much better now, but there still is a lot of room for improvement. The bigger problem now is that Amsterdam has become addicted to parking meter fees, and so they can't let go of the cars that are still there.

cycomanic 6y ago

I actually just had an argument with my SO about this. She was arguing that it was mostly the parents protesting and I strongly disagreed. If you talk with a even 6 year old, they can realise things being wrong and argue about it very well (and get better at it when they get older to 11-12). In particular they question things that adults often take for granted. Now that requires parents listening and taking the kids serious instead of just telling them to obey. So I believe it's wrong to suggest that it was adults "misusing" their children. The way it was portrayed in the film was that it was the children discussing their situation in class and then being encouraged to try to do something about it (the bit where they talk to the politician). This is how you raise children who think critically and create participation in democratic processes. I would not be surprised that this is the actual way it developed.

jacquesm 6y ago
I've left a long comment above to illustrate this further.

jacquesm 6y ago

As one of the kids that participated in the strike (I lived in 'de Pijp' at the time, a pretty densely populated part of Amsterdam South) my mom had nothing to do with this and did not want me to participate. My sister was too young but I was out there at the ripe old age of seven. Every kid knew at least one kid that had been killed in a vehicle accident, traffic and parking were insane, to the point where you had to detour 500 meters in order to just cross the street safely. (And even then, there were routinely people running red lights and not paying attention when turning right on green that people might be crossing, much like it still happens today in modern day Bucharest.) So, though I'm sure that some adults were involved the kids were very much driving this. What gave the initial idea (and which is not very well explained here) is that the strike was the beginning, but what really cemented the idea in place was the car-less sundays a year later because of the oil crisis. This showed everybody what life really could be like, and soon after there was a lot more support for making neighborhoods safer. The great thing about Amsterdam at the time was that the smaller areas were relatively autonomous and could make some pretty big changes, such as making streets one-way (already a lot safer) or to block traffic from going somewhere entirely. The Pijp was particularly bad because population density was so high that the only place where kids could play safely were the parks (mostly: Sarphatipark) but that was quite far away for many of us and you had to cross either one or two very busy streets to get there. And so we played mostly on the streets, which was about as unsafe as you can imagine. If you've ever played the game of 'frogger' you get a good idea of what life in that part of Amsterdam was like at that time. It is much better now, but there still is a lot of room for improvement. The bigger problem now is that Amsterdam has become addicted to parking meter fees, and so they can't let go of the cars that are still there.